Non-dropping rule for mini-slot based repetition

ABSTRACT

Aspects relate to implementing a non-dropping rule for mini-slot based repetition of downlink channel data or control. In one example, cancelled repetition may be identified, non-cancelled remaining repetitions may be received, and acknowledgment feedback based on reception results may be generated. In another example, a plurality of time domain resource allocation (TDRA) candidate occasions may be identified where each occasion occurs within a different respective one of a plurality of mini-slots, each mini-slot carrying a different respective one of a plurality of downlink channel repetitions. A TDRA table may be maintained. The TDRA table may include TDRA entries such as location information of the plurality of TDRA candidate occasions associated with the plurality of downlink channel repetitions. The TDRA table may be maintained when at least one of the plurality of downlink channel repetitions is not decoded. A wireless communication device may refrain from dropping non-decoded downlink channel repetitions.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application for patent is a divisional of patent application Ser.No. 17/186,343 entitled “Non-Dropping Rule For Mini-Slot BasedRepetition” filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office onFeb. 26, 2021, which claims priority to and the benefit of provisionalpatent application No. 62/992,852 entitled “Non-Dropping Rule ForMini-Slot Based Repetition” filed in the United States Patent andTrademark Office on Mar. 20, 2020, the entire content of each patentapplication is incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forthbelow in its entirety and for all applicable purposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The technology discussed below relates generally to wirelesscommunication systems, and more particularly, to rules related todropping of downlink data channels.

INTRODUCTION

In wireless communications networks, downlink data may be transmittedfrom a network access node, such as a gNodeB, to a wirelesscommunication device using an over-the-air interface. The frequency-timeresources used in the over-the-air interface may be ordered into frames,sub-frames, and slots. Downlink data may be communicated via theover-the-air interface in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)that may be located, for example, within a slot. Next generationwireless communication networks, such as 5G networks, provide formini-slots to be implemented within a slot. Mini-slots, like slots, mayinclude a plurality of symbols in the time domain, each configured tocarry uplink (UL) data, downlink (DL) data, or a combination of UL andDL data. The PDSCH may be repeated on a plurality of occasions within aslot, where each occasion occurs within one mini-slot within a givenslot.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF SOME EXAMPLES

The following presents a summary of one or more aspects of the presentdisclosure, in order to provide a basic understanding of such aspects.This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated featuresof the disclosure and is intended neither to identify key or criticalelements of all aspects of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope ofany or all aspects of the disclosure. Its sole purpose is to presentsome concepts of one or more aspects of the disclosure in a form as aprelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

According to one aspect, a method of wireless communication at awireless communication device is disclosed. The method includesidentifying at least one of a plurality of repeated communications thatis cancelled, receiving remaining repeated communications of theplurality of repeated communications that are not cancelled, andgenerating acknowledgment feedback information for the remainingrepeated communications.

In one example, a wireless communication device in a wirelesscommunication network that includes a wireless transceiver, a memory,and a processor communicatively coupled to the wireless transceiver andthe memory are disclosed. The processor and the memory are configured toidentify at least one of a plurality of repeated communications that iscancelled, receive remaining repeated communications of the plurality ofrepeated communications that are not cancelled; and generateacknowledgment feedback information for the remaining repeatedcommunications.

In another example, another method of wireless communication at awireless communication device is disclosed. The method includesidentifying a plurality of time domain resource allocation (TDRA)candidate occasions, each TDRA candidate occasion occurring within adifferent respective one of a plurality of mini-slots, each of theplurality of mini-slots carrying a different respective one of aplurality of downlink channel repetitions. The method further includesmaintaining, in a TDRA table, TDRA entries including locationinformation of the plurality of TDRA candidate occasions associated withthe plurality of downlink channel repetitions, when at least one of theplurality of downlink channel repetitions is not decoded.

In still another example, another wireless communication device in awireless communication network that includes a wireless transceiver, amemory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the wirelesstransceiver and the memory are disclosed. The processor and the memoryare configured to identify a plurality of time domain resourceallocation (TDRA) candidate occasions, each TDRA candidate occasionoccurring within a different respective one of a plurality ofmini-slots, each of the plurality of mini-slots carrying a differentrespective one of a plurality of downlink channel repetitions. Theprocessor and the memory are further configured to maintain, in a TDRAtable, TDRA entries including location information of the plurality ofTDRA candidate occasions associated with the plurality of downlinkchannel repetitions, when at least one of the plurality of downlinkchannel repetitions is not decoded.

These and other aspects of the invention will become more fullyunderstood upon a review of the detailed description, which follows.Other aspects, features, and examples will become apparent to those ofordinary skill in the art, upon reviewing the following description ofspecific, exemplary examples in conjunction with the accompanyingfigures. While features may be discussed relative to certain examplesand figures below, all examples can include one or more of theadvantageous features discussed herein. In other words, while one ormore examples may be discussed as having certain advantageous features,one or more of such features may also be used in accordance with thevarious examples discussed herein. In similar fashion, while exemplaryexamples may be discussed below as device, system, or method examples itshould be understood that such exemplary examples can be implemented invarious devices, systems, and methods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a wireless communication systemaccording to some aspects.

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a radio access network (RAN)according to some aspects.

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of an organization of wirelessresources in an air interface utilizing orthogonal frequency divisionalmultiplexing (OFDM) according to some aspects.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardwareimplementation of a wireless communication device employing a processingsystem according to some aspects.

FIG. 5 depicts an example of a slot configured for single-downlinkcontrol information (DCI) based multiple transmission reception point(M-TRP) ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) scheme 3 and 4according to some aspects.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process for a wirelesscommunication device to reserve resources for one or more transmissionsof a packet over a sidelink according to some aspects.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process for a wirelesscommunication device to reserve resources for one or more transmissionsof a packet over a sidelink according to some aspects.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating an additional aspect of a processrelated to the exemplary process of FIG. 7 for a wireless communicationdevice to implement a non-dropping rule for mini-slot based repetitionaccording to some aspects.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appendeddrawings is intended as a description of various configurations and isnot intended to represent the only configurations in which the conceptsdescribed herein may be practiced. The detailed description includesspecific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understandingof various concepts. However, it will be apparent to those skilled inthe art that these concepts may be practiced without these specificdetails. In some instances, well known structures and components areshown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring such concepts.

While aspects and examples are described in this application byillustration to some examples, those skilled in the art will understandthat additional implementations and use cases may come about in manydifferent arrangements and scenarios. Innovations described herein maybe implemented across many differing platform types, devices, systems,shapes, sizes, and packaging arrangements. For example, aspects and/oruses may come about via integrated chip examples and othernon-module-component based devices (e.g., end-user devices, vehicles,communication devices, computing devices, industrial equipment,retail/purchasing devices, medical devices, artificial intelligence (AI)enabled devices, etc.). While some examples may or may not bespecifically directed to use cases or applications, a wide assortment ofapplicability of described innovations may occur. Implementations mayrange a spectrum from chip-level or modular components to non-modular,non-chip-level implementations and further to aggregate, distributed, ororiginal equipment manufacturer (OEM) devices or systems incorporatingone or more aspects of the described innovations. In some practicalsettings, devices incorporating described aspects and features may alsonecessarily include additional components and features forimplementation and practice of claimed and described examples. Forexample, transmission and reception of wireless signals necessarilyincludes a number of components for analog and digital purposes (e.g.,hardware components including antenna, RF-chains, power amplifiers,modulators, buffer, processor(s), interleaver, adders/summers, etc.). Itis intended that innovations described herein may be practiced in a widevariety of devices, chip-level components, systems, distributedarrangements, end-user devices, etc. of varying sizes, shapes, andconstitution.

The various concepts presented throughout this disclosure may beimplemented across a broad variety of telecommunication systems, networkarchitectures, and communication standards. Referring now to FIG. 1 , asan illustrative example without limitation, various aspects of thepresent disclosure are illustrated with reference to a wirelesscommunication system 100. The wireless communication system 100 includesthree interacting domains: a core network 102 (e.g., a 5G core (5GC)network), a radio access network (RAN) 104, and a user equipment (UE)106 (e.g., a scheduled entity). By virtue of the wireless communicationsystem 100, the UE 106 may be enabled to carry out data communicationwith an external data network 110, such as (but not limited to) theInternet.

The RAN 104 may implement any suitable wireless communication technologyor technologies to provide radio access to the UE 106. As one example,the RAN 104 may operate according to 3^(rd) Generation PartnershipProject (3GPP) New Radio (NR) specifications, often referred to as 5G.As another example, the RAN 104 may operate under a hybrid of 5G NR andEvolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (eUTRAN) standards,often referred to as Long Term Evolution (LTE). The 3GPP refers to thishybrid RAN as a next-generation RAN, or NG-RAN. Of course, many otherexamples may be utilized within the scope of the present disclosure.

As illustrated, the RAN 104 includes a plurality of scheduling entities(schematically illustrated as scheduling entity 108) also referred toherein as base stations. Broadly, a base station is a network element ina radio access network responsible for radio transmission and receptionin one or more cells to or from a UE. In different technologies,standards, or contexts, a base station may variously be referred to bythose skilled in the art as a base transceiver station (BTS), a radiobase station, a radio transceiver, a transceiver function, a basicservice set (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), an access point (AP),a Node B (NB), an eNode B (eNB), a gNode B (gNB), a transmission andreception point (TRP), or some other suitable terminology. In someexamples, a base station may include two or more TRPs that may becollocated or non-collocated. Each TRP may communicate on the same ordifferent carrier frequency within the same or different frequency band.In examples where the wireless communication system 100 operatesaccording to both the LTE and 5G NR standards, one of the base stationsmay be an LTE base station, while another base station may be a 5G NRbase station.

Wireless communication between the RAN 104 and the UE 106 may bedescribed as utilizing an air interface. Transmissions over the airinterface from a base station (e.g., scheduling entity 108) to one ormore UEs (e.g., similar to UE 106) may be referred to as downlink (DL)transmission. In accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure, the term downlink may refer to a point-to-multipointtransmission originating at a scheduling entity 108 (e.g., basestation). Another way to describe this scheme may be to use the termbroadcast channel multiplexing. Transmissions from a UE (e.g., UE 106)to a scheduling entity 108 (e.g., a base station) may be referred to asuplink (UL) transmissions. In accordance with further aspects of thepresent disclosure, the term uplink may refer to a point-to-pointtransmission originating at a scheduled entity (e.g., UE 106).

In some examples, access to the air interface may be scheduled, whereina scheduling entity 108 (e.g., a base station) allocates resources forcommunication among some or all devices and equipment within its servicearea or cell. Within the present disclosure, as discussed further below,the scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, assigning,reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more scheduledentities. That is, for scheduled communication, a plurality of UEs(e.g., a plurality of UE 106), which may be scheduled entities, mayutilize resources allocated by the scheduling entity 108.

Base stations, represented in both the singular and the plural byscheduling entity 108, are not the only entities that may function asscheduling entities. That is, in some examples, a UE may function as ascheduling entity, scheduling resources for one or more scheduledentities (e.g., one or more other UEs).

As illustrated in FIG. 1 , a scheduling entity 108 may broadcastdownlink traffic 112 to one or more scheduled entities (e.g., one ormore UE 106). Broadly, the scheduling entity 108 is a node or deviceresponsible for scheduling traffic in a wireless communication network,including the downlink traffic 112 and, in some examples, uplink traffic116 from one or more scheduled entities (e.g., one or more UE 106) tothe scheduling entity 108. On the other hand, the scheduled entity(e.g., one or more UE 106) is a node or device that receives downlinkcontrol information 114, including but not limited to schedulinginformation (e.g., a grant), synchronization or timing information, orother control information from another entity in the wirelesscommunication network such as the scheduling entity 108.

In general, scheduling entities, as graphically represented in thesingular and plural by scheduling entity 108, may include a backhaulinterface for communication with a backhaul portion 120 of the wirelesscommunication system 100. The backhaul portion 120 may provide a linkbetween a scheduling entity 108 and the core network 102. Further, insome examples, a backhaul network may provide interconnection betweenthe respective base stations (each similar to scheduling entity 108).Various types of backhaul interfaces may be employed, such as a directphysical connection, a virtual network, or the like using any suitabletransport network.

The core network 102 may be a part of the wireless communication system100 and may be independent of the radio access technology used in theRAN 104. In some examples, the core network 102 may be configuredaccording to 5G standards (e.g., 5GC). In other examples, the corenetwork 102 may be configured according to a 4G evolved packet core(EPC), or any other suitable standard or configuration.

Referring now to FIG. 2 , as an illustrative example without limitation,a schematic illustration of a radio access network (RAN) 200 accordingto some aspects is provided. In some examples, the RAN 200 may be thesame as the RAN 104 described above and illustrated in FIG. 1 . Thegeographic region covered by the RAN 200 may be divided into a number ofcellular regions (cells) that can be uniquely identified by a userequipment (UE) based on an identification broadcasted over ageographical area from one access point or base station. FIG. 2illustrates cells 202, 204, 206, and 208, each of which may include oneor more sectors (not shown). Cells 202, 204, and 206 may be referred toas macrocells and cell 208 may be referred to as a small cell. A sectoris a sub-area of a cell. All sectors within one cell are served by thesame base station. A radio link within a sector can be identified by asingle logical identification belonging to that sector. In a cell thatis divided into sectors, the multiple sectors within a cell can beformed by groups of antennas with each antenna responsible forcommunication with UEs in a portion of the cell.

In general, a respective base station (BS) serves each cell. Broadly, abase station is a network element in a radio access network responsiblefor radio transmission and reception in one or more cells to or from aUE. A BS may also be referred to by those skilled in the art as a basetransceiver station (BTS), a radio base station, a radio transceiver, atransceiver function, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set(ESS), an access point (AP), a Node B (NB), an eNode B (eNB), a gNode B(gNB) or some other suitable terminology.

In FIG. 2 , two base stations, base station 210 and base station 212 areshown in cells 202 and 204. A third base station, base station 214, isshown controlling a remote radio head (RRH) 216 in cell 206. That is, abase station can have an integrated antenna or can be connected to anantenna or RRH 216 by feeder cables. In the illustrated example, cells202, 204, and 206 may be referred to as macrocells, as the base stations210, 212, and 214 support cells having a large size. Further, a basestation 218 is shown in the cell 208 (e.g., a small cell, a microcell,picocell, femtocell, home base station, home Node B, home eNode B, etc.)which may overlap with one or more macrocells. In this example, the cell208 may be referred to as a small cell, as the base station 218 supportsa cell having a relatively small size. Cell sizing can be done accordingto system design as well as component constraints. It is to beunderstood that the RAN 200 may include any number of wireless basestations and cells. Further, a relay node may be deployed to extend thesize or coverage area of a given cell. The base stations 210, 212, 214,218 provide wireless access points to a core network for any number ofmobile apparatuses.

FIG. 2 further includes a quadcopter or drone, which may be configuredto function as a base station, or more specifically as a mobile basestation 220. That is, in some examples, a cell may not necessarily bestationary, and the geographic area of the cell may move according tothe location of a mobile base station 220 such as a quadcopter or drone.

In general, base stations may include a backhaul interface forcommunication with a backhaul portion (not shown) of the network. Thebackhaul may provide a link between a base station and a core network(not shown), and in some examples, the backhaul may provideinterconnection between the respective base stations. The core networkmay be a part of a wireless communication system and may be independentof the radio access technology used in the radio access network. Varioustypes of backhaul interfaces may be employed, such as a direct physicalconnection, a virtual network, or the like using any suitable transportnetwork.

The RAN 200 is illustrated supporting wireless communication formultiple mobile apparatuses. A mobile apparatus may be referred to asuser equipment (UE) in standards and specifications promulgated by the3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), but may also be referred toby those skilled in the art as a mobile station (MS), a subscriberstation, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, a remoteunit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wireless communicationsdevice, a remote device, a mobile subscriber station, an access terminal(AT), a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, ahandset, a terminal, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or someother suitable terminology. A UE may be an apparatus that provides auser with access to network services. A UE may include a number ofhardware structural components sized, shaped, and arranged to help incommunication; for example, such components may include antennas,antenna arrays, radio frequency (RF) chains, amplifiers, one or moreprocessors, etc. electrically coupled to each other.

Within the present document, a “mobile” apparatus need not necessarilyhave a capability to move and may be stationary. The term mobileapparatus or mobile device broadly refers to a diverse array of devicesand technologies. For example, some non-limiting examples of a mobileapparatus include a mobile, a cellular (cell) phone, a smart phone, asession initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a laptop, a personal computer(PC), a notebook, a netbook, a smartbook, a tablet, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), and a broad array of embedded systems, e.g.,corresponding to an “Internet of things” (IoT). A mobile apparatus mayadditionally be an automotive or other transportation vehicle, a remotesensor or actuator, a robot or robotics device, a satellite radio, aglobal positioning system (GPS) device, an object tracking device, adrone, a multi-copter, a quad-copter, a remote control device, aconsumer and/or wearable device, such as eyewear, a wearable camera, avirtual reality device, a smart watch, a health or fitness tracker, adigital audio player (e.g., MP3 player), a camera, a game console, etc.A mobile apparatus may additionally be a digital home or smart homedevice such as a home audio, video, and/or multimedia device, anappliance, a vending machine, intelligent lighting, a home securitysystem, a smart meter, etc. A mobile apparatus may additionally be asmart energy device, a security device, a solar panel or solar array, amunicipal infrastructure device controlling electric power (e.g., asmart grid), lighting, water, etc.; an industrial automation andenterprise device; a logistics controller; agricultural equipment; etc.Still further, a mobile apparatus may provide for connected medicine ortelemedicine support, i.e., health care at a distance. Telehealthdevices may include telehealth monitoring devices and telehealthadministration devices, whose communication may be given preferentialtreatment or prioritized access over other types of information, e.g.,in terms of prioritized access for transport of critical service data,and/or relevant QoS for transport of critical service data.

Within the RAN 200, the cells may include UEs that may be incommunication with one or more sectors of each cell. For example, UEs222 and 224 may be in communication with base station 210; UEs 226 and228 may be in communication with base station 212; UEs 230 and 232 maybe in communication with base station 214 by way of RRH 216; UE 234 maybe in communication with base station 218; and UE 236 may be incommunication with mobile base station 220. Here, each base station 210,212, 214, 218, and 220 may be configured to provide an access point to acore network (not shown) for all the UEs in the respective cells. Inanother example, the mobile base station 220 (e.g., the quadcopter) maybe configured to function as a UE. For example, the mobile base station220 may operate within cell 202 by communicating with base station 210.

Wireless communication between a RAN 200 and a UE (e.g., UE 222 or 224)may be described as utilizing an air interface. Transmissions over theair interface from a base station (e.g., base station 210) to one ormore UEs (e.g., UE 222 and 224) may be referred to as downlink (DL)transmission. In accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure, the term downlink may refer to a point-to-multipointtransmission originating at a scheduling entity (e.g., base station210). Another way to describe this scheme may be to use the termbroadcast channel multiplexing. Transmissions from a UE (e.g., UE 222)to a base station (e.g., base station 210) may be referred to as uplink(UL) transmissions. In accordance with further aspects of the presentdisclosure, the term uplink may refer to a point-to-point transmissionoriginating at a scheduled entity (e.g., UE 222).

For example, DL transmissions may include unicast or broadcasttransmissions of control information and/or traffic information (e.g.,user data traffic) from a base station (e.g., base station 210) to oneor more UEs (e.g., UEs 222 and 224), while UL transmissions may includetransmissions of control information and/or traffic informationoriginating at a UE (e.g., UE 222). In addition, the uplink and/ordownlink control information and/or traffic information may betime-divided into frames, subframes, slots, and/or symbols. As usedherein, a symbol may refer to a unit of time that, in an orthogonalfrequency division multiplexed (OFDM) waveform, carries one resourceelement (RE) per sub-carrier. A slot may carry 7 or 14 OFDM symbols. Asubframe may refer to a duration of 1 ms. Multiple subframes or slotsmay be grouped together to form a single frame or radio frame. Ofcourse, these definitions are not required, and any suitable scheme fororganizing waveforms may be utilized, and various time divisions of thewaveform may have any suitable duration.

In the RAN 200, the ability for a UE to communicate while moving,independent of their location, is referred to as mobility. The variousphysical channels between the UE and the RAN are generally set up,maintained, and released under the control of an access and mobilitymanagement function (AMF), which may include a security contextmanagement function (SCMF) that manages the security context for boththe control plane and the user plane functionality and a security anchorfunction (SEAF) that performs authentication. In various aspects of thedisclosure, a RAN 200 may utilize DL-based mobility or UL-based mobilityto enable mobility and handovers (i.e., the transfer of a UE'sconnection from one radio channel to another). In a network configuredfor DL-based mobility, during a call with a scheduling entity, or at anyother time, a UE may monitor various parameters of the signal from itsserving cell as well as various parameters of neighboring cells.Depending on the quality of these parameters, the UE may maintaincommunication with one or more of the neighboring cells. During thistime, if the UE moves from one cell to another, or if signal qualityfrom a neighboring cell exceeds that from the serving cell for a givenamount of time, the UE may undertake a handoff or handover from theserving cell to the neighboring (target) cell. For example, UE 224 maymove from the geographic area corresponding to its serving cell, cell202, to the geographic area corresponding to a neighbor cell, cell 206.When the signal strength or quality from the neighbor cell, cell 206,exceeds that of its serving cell, cell 202, for a given amount of time,the UE 224 may transmit a reporting message to its serving base station,base station 210, indicating this condition. In response, the UE 224 mayreceive a handover command, and the UE may undergo a handover to thecell 206.

In a network configured for UL-based mobility, UL reference signals fromeach UE may be utilized by the network to select a serving cell for eachUE. In some examples, the base stations 210, 212, and 214/216 maybroadcast unified synchronization signals (e.g., unified PrimarySynchronization Signals (PSSs), unified Secondary SynchronizationSignals (SSSs) and unified Physical Broadcast Channels (PBCH)). The UEs222, 224, 226, 228, 230, and 232 may receive the unified synchronizationsignals, derive the carrier frequency and slot timing from thesynchronization signals, and in response to deriving timing, transmit anuplink pilot or reference signal. The uplink pilot signal transmitted bya UE (e.g., UE 224) may be concurrently received by two or more cells(e.g., base stations 210 and 214/216) within the RAN 200. Each of thecells may measure a strength of the pilot signal, and the radio accessnetwork (e.g., one or more of the base stations 210 and 214/216 and/or acentral node within the core network) may determine a serving cell forthe UE 224. As the UE 224 moves through the RAN 200, the RAN 200 maycontinue to monitor the uplink pilot signal transmitted by the UE 224.When the signal strength or quality of the pilot signal measured by aneighboring cell exceeds that of the signal strength or quality measuredby the serving cell, the RAN 200 may handover the UE 224 from theserving cell to the neighboring cell, with or without informing the UE224.

Although the synchronization signal transmitted by the base stations210, 212, and 214/216 may be unified, the synchronization signal may notidentify a particular cell, but rather may identify a zone of multiplecells operating on the same frequency and/or with the same timing. Theuse of zones in 5G networks or other next generation communicationnetworks enables the uplink-based mobility framework and improves theefficiency of both the UE and the network, since the number of mobilitymessages that need to be exchanged between the UE and the network may bereduced.

In some examples, access to the air interface may be scheduled, whereina scheduling entity (e.g., a base station) allocates resources (e.g.,time-frequency resources) for communication among some or all devicesand equipment within its service area or cell. Within the presentdisclosure, as discussed further below, the scheduling entity may beresponsible for scheduling, assigning, reconfiguring, and releasingresources for one or more scheduled entities. That is, for scheduledcommunication, UEs or scheduled entities utilize resources allocated bythe scheduling entity.

Base stations are not the only entities that may function as ascheduling entity. That is, in some examples, a UE may function as ascheduling entity, scheduling resources for one or more scheduledentities (e.g., one or more other UEs). For example, UE 238 isillustrated communicating with UEs 240 and 242. In some examples, the UE238 is functioning as a scheduling entity, while the UEs 240 and 242 mayfunction as scheduled entities. In other examples, sidelink or othertype of direct link signals may be communicated directly between UEswithout necessarily relying on scheduling or control information fromanother entity. In one example, two or more UEs (e.g., UEs 226 and 228)may communicate with each other using direct link signals 227 (e.g.,sidelink, Bluetooth, and/or other types of direct link signals) withoutrelaying that communication through a base station (e.g., base station212). In another example, UEs 238, 240, and 242 may communicate over adirect link in a device-to-device (D2D), peer-to-peer (P2P),vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) network, vehicle-to-everything (V2X), and/or ina mesh network. In a mesh network example, UEs 240 and 242 mayoptionally communicate directly with one another in addition tocommunicating with a scheduling entity (e.g., UE 238).

In some examples, UE 238 may be a transmitting sidelink device thatreserves resources on a sidelink carrier for the transmission ofsidelink signals to UEs 240 and 242 in a D2D or V2X network. Here, UEs240 and 242 are each receiving sidelink devices. UEs 240 and 242 may, inturn, reserve additional resources on the sidelink carrier forsubsequent sidelink transmissions.

In other examples, UEs 238, 240, and 242 may be P2P devices (e.g.,Bluetooth, Zigbee, or Near Field Communication (NFC) devices)communicating over a P2P carrier. For example, UEs 238, 240, and 242 maybe Bluetooth devices that communicate over a short-wavelength (e.g.,2.45 GHz) carrier. Each Bluetooth device (e.g., UEs 238, 240, and 242)may operate at low power (e.g., 100 mW or less) to communicate over ashort-range distance (e.g., 10 meters or less). In a Bluetooth network,the UEs 238, 240, and 242 may form an ad-hoc piconet and each pair ofUEs (e.g., UEs 238 and 240; UEs 238 and 242; and UEs 240 and 242) maycommunicate over a different frequency in a frequency-hopping mannerWithin the piconet, one of the UEs (e.g., UE 238) may function as themaster, while the other UEs (e.g., UEs 240 and 242) function as slaves.Each of the UEs 238, 240, and 242 may automatically detect and connectto one another.

In some examples, two or more UEs (e.g., UEs 226 and 228) within thecoverage area of a serving base station, such as base station 212, maycommunicate with both the base station 212 using cellular signals andwith each other using direct link signals 227 (e.g., sidelink,Bluetooth, and/or other types of direct link signals) without relayingthat communication through the base station 212. In an example of a V2Xnetwork within the coverage area of the base station 212, the basestation 212 and/or one or both of the UEs 226 and 228 may function asscheduling entities to schedule sidelink communication between UEs 226and 228.

Two primary technologies that may be used by V2X networks includededicated short-range communication (DSRC) based on IEEE 802.11pstandards and cellular V2X based on LTE and/or 5G (New Radio) standards.Various aspects of the present disclosure may relate to New Radio (NR)cellular V2X networks, referred to herein as V2X networks, forsimplicity. However, it should be understood that the concepts disclosedherein may not be limited to a particular V2X standard or may bedirected to direct link (e.g., sidelink) networks other than V2Xnetworks.

The air interface in the RAN 200 may utilize one or more multiplexingand multiple access algorithms to enable simultaneous communication ofthe various devices. For example, 5G NR specifications provide multipleaccess for UL transmissions from UEs 222 and 224 to base station 210,and for multiplexing for DL transmissions from base station 210 to oneor more UEs 222 and 224, utilizing orthogonal frequency divisionmultiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP). In addition, for ULtransmissions, 5G NR specifications provide support for discrete Fouriertransform-spread-OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) with a CP (also referred to assingle-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA)). However, within the scope of the presentdisclosure, multiplexing and multiple access are not limited to theabove schemes and may be provided utilizing time division multipleaccess (TDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency divisionmultiple access (FDMA), sparse code multiple access (SCMA), resourcespread multiple access (RSMA), or other suitable multiple accessschemes. Further, multiplexing DL transmissions from the base station210 to UEs 222 and 224 may be provided utilizing time divisionmultiplexing (TDM), code division multiplexing (CDM), frequency divisionmultiplexing (FDM), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM),sparse code multiplexing (SCM), or other suitable multiplexing schemes.

Various aspects of the present disclosure will be described withreference to an OFDM waveform, schematically illustrated in FIG. 3 . Itshould be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that thevarious aspects of the present disclosure may be applied, for example,to a DFT-s-OFDMA or an SC-FDMA waveform in substantially the same way asdescribed herein below. That is, while some examples of the presentdisclosure may focus on an OFDM link for clarity, it should beunderstood that the same principles may be applied as well toDFT-s-OFDMA or SC-FDMA waveforms.

Referring now to FIG. 3 , an expanded view of an exemplary subframe 302is illustrated, showing an OFDM resource grid. However, as those skilledin the art will readily appreciate, the physical (PHY) transmissionstructure for any particular application may vary from the exampledescribed here, depending on any number of factors. Here, time is in thehorizontal direction with units of OFDM symbols; and frequency is in thevertical direction with units of subcarriers of the carrier.

The resource grid 304 may be used to schematically representtime-frequency resources for a given antenna port. That is, in amultiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) implementation with multipleantenna ports available, a corresponding multiple number of resourcegrids 304 may be available for communication. The resource grid 304 isdivided into multiple resource elements (REs) 306. A RE, which is 1subcarrier×1 symbol, is the smallest discrete part of the time-frequencygrid, and contains a single complex value representing data from aphysical channel or signal. Depending on the modulation utilized in aparticular implementation, each RE may represent one or more bits ofinformation. In some examples, a block of REs may be referred to as aphysical resource block (PRB) or more simply a resource block (RB) 308,which contains any suitable number of consecutive subcarriers in thefrequency domain. In one example, an RB may include 12 subcarriers, anumber independent of the numerology used. In some examples, dependingon the numerology, an RB may include any suitable number of consecutiveOFDM symbols in the time domain Within the present disclosure, it isassumed that a single RB such as the RB 308 entirely corresponds to asingle direction of communication (either transmission or reception fora given device).

Scheduling of UEs or sidelink devices (hereinafter collectively referredto as UEs) for downlink, uplink, or sidelink transmissions typicallyinvolves scheduling one or more resource elements 306 within one or moresub-bands. Thus, a UE generally utilizes only a subset of the resourcegrid 304. In some examples, an RB may be the smallest unit of resourcesthat can be allocated to a UE. Thus, the more RBs scheduled for a UE,and the higher the modulation scheme chosen for the air interface, thehigher the data rate for the UE. The RBs may be scheduled by a basestation (e.g., gNB, eNB, etc.) or may be self-scheduled by a UE/sidelinkdevice implementing D2D sidelink communication.

In this illustration, the RB 308 is shown as occupying less than theentire bandwidth of the subframe 302, with some subcarriers illustratedabove and below the RB 308. In a given implementation, the subframe 302may have a bandwidth corresponding to any number of one or more RBs 308.Further, in this illustration, the RB 308 is shown as occupying lessthan the entire duration of the subframe 302, although this is merelyone possible example.

According to some examples, a frame may refer to a duration of 10 ms,with each frame sub-divided into 10 subframes 302 of 1 ms each. Each 1ms subframe may consist of one or multiple adjacent slots. In theexample shown in FIG. 3 , subframe 302 includes four slots 310, as anillustrative example. In some examples, a slot may be defined accordingto a specified number of OFDM symbols with a given cyclic prefix (CP)length. For example, a slot may include 7 or 14 OFDM symbols with anominal CP. Additional examples may include mini-slots, sometimesreferred to as shortened transmission time intervals (TTIs), having ashorter duration (e.g., 1, 2, or 3 OFDM symbols). These mini-slots, orshortened TTIs, may in some cases be transmitted occupying resourcesscheduled for ongoing slot transmissions for the same or for differentUEs. Any number of resource blocks may be utilized within a subframe orslot.

An expanded view of one of the slots 310 illustrates the slot asincluding a control region 312 and a data region 314. In general, thecontrol region 312 may carry control channels (e.g., PDCCH), and thedata region 314 may carry data channels (e.g., PDSCH or PUSCH). Ofcourse, a slot may contain all DL, all UL, or at least one DL portionand at least one UL portion. The simple structure illustrated in FIG. 3is merely exemplary in nature, and different slot structures may beutilized, and may include one or more of each of the control region(s)and data region(s).

Although not illustrated in FIG. 3 , the various REs 306 within an RB308 may be scheduled to carry one or more physical channels, includingcontrol channels, shared channels, data channels, etc. Other REs 306within the RB 308 may also carry pilots or reference signals. Thesepilots or reference signals may provide for a receiving device toperform channel estimation of the corresponding channel, which mayenable coherent demodulation/detection of the control and/or datachannels within the RB 308.

In some examples, the slot 310 may be utilized for broadcast or unicastcommunication. For example, a broadcast, multicast, or groupcastcommunication may refer to a point-to-multipoint transmission by onedevice (e.g., a base station, UE, or other similar device) to otherdevices. Here, a broadcast communication is delivered to all devices,whereas a multicast communication is delivered to multiple intendedrecipient devices. A unicast communication may refer to a point-to-pointtransmission by a one device to a single other device.

In an example of cellular communication over a cellular carrier via a Uuinterface, for a DL transmission, the scheduling entity (e.g., a basestation) may allocate one or more REs 306 (e.g., within the controlregion 312) to carry DL control information including one or more DLcontrol channels, such as a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH),to one or more scheduled entities (e.g., UEs). The PDCCH carriesdownlink control information (DCI) including but not limited to powercontrol commands (e.g., one or more open loop power control parametersand/or one or more closed loop power control parameters), schedulinginformation, a grant, and/or an assignment of REs for DL and ULtransmissions. The PDCCH may further carry hybrid automatic repeatrequest (HARQ) feedback transmissions such as an acknowledgment (ACK) ornegative-acknowledgment (NACK). HARQ is a technique well-known to thoseof ordinary skill in the art, wherein the integrity of packettransmissions may be checked at the receiving side for accuracy, e.g.,utilizing any suitable integrity checking mechanism, such as a checksumor a cyclic redundancy check (CRC). If the integrity of the transmissionis confirmed, an acknowledgment (ACK) may be transmitted, whereas if notconfirmed, a negative-acknowledgment (NACK) may be transmitted. Inresponse to a NACK, the transmitting device may send a HARQretransmission, which may implement chase combining, incrementalredundancy, etc.

The base station may further allocate one or more REs 306 (e.g., in thecontrol region 312 or the data region 314) to carry other DL signals,such as a demodulation reference signal (DMRS); a phase-trackingreference signal (PT-RS); a channel state information (CSI) referencesignal (CSI-RS); and a synchronization signal block (SSB). SSBs may bebroadcast at regular intervals based on a periodicity (e.g., 5, 10, 20,40, 80, or 140 ms). An SSB includes a primary synchronization signal(PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and a physicalbroadcast control channel (PBCH). A UE may utilize the PSS and SSS toachieve radio frame, subframe, slot, and symbol synchronization in thetime domain, identify the center of the channel (system) bandwidth inthe frequency domain, and identify the physical cell identity (PCI) ofthe cell.

The PBCH in the SSB may further include a master information block (MIB)that includes various system information, along with parameters fordecoding a system information block (SIB). The SIB may be, for example,a SystemInformationType 1 (SIB1) that may include various additionalsystem information. The MIB and SIB1 together provide the minimum systeminformation (SI) for initial access. Examples of system informationtransmitted in the MIB may include, but are not limited to, a subcarrierspacing (e.g., default downlink numerology), system frame number, aconfiguration of a PDCCH control resource set (CORESET) (e.g., PDCCHCORESET0), a cell barred indicator, a cell reselection indicator, araster offset, and a search space for SIB1. Examples of remainingminimum system information (RMSI) transmitted in the SIB1 may include,but are not limited to, a random access search space, a paging searchspace, downlink configuration information, and uplink configurationinformation.

In an UL transmission, the scheduled entity may utilize one or more REs306 to carry UL control information (UCI) including one or more ULcontrol channels, such as a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), tothe scheduling entity. UCI may include a variety of packet types andcategories, including pilots, reference signals, and informationconfigured to enable or assist in decoding uplink data transmissions.Examples of uplink reference signals may include a sounding referencesignal (SRS) and an uplink DMRS. In some examples, the UCI may include ascheduling request (SR), i.e., request for the scheduling entity toschedule uplink transmissions. Here, in response to the SR transmittedon the UCI, the scheduling entity may transmit downlink controlinformation (DCI) that may schedule resources for uplink packettransmissions. UCI may also include HARQ feedback, channel statefeedback (CSF), such as a CSI report, or any other suitable UCI.

In addition to control information, one or more REs 306 (e.g., withinthe data region 314) may be allocated for user data traffic. Suchtraffic may be carried on one or more traffic channels, such as, for aDL transmission, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); or for anUL transmission, a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). In someexamples, one or more REs 306 within the data region 314 may beconfigured to carry other signals, such as one or more SIBs and DMRSs.

In an example of sidelink communication over a sidelink carrier via aPC5 interface, the control region 312 of the slot 310 may include aphysical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) including sidelink controlinformation (SCI) transmitted by an initiating (transmitting) sidelinkdevice (e.g., Tx V2X or other Tx UE) towards a set of one or more otherreceiving sidelink devices (e.g., Rx V2X device or other Rx UE). Thedata region 314 of the slot 310 may include a physical sidelink sharedchannel (PSSCH) including sidelink data traffic transmitted by theinitiating (transmitting) sidelink device within resources reserved overthe sidelink carrier by the transmitting sidelink device via the SCI.Other information may further be transmitted over various REs 306 withinslot 310. For example, HARQ feedback information may be transmitted in aphysical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) within the slot 310 from thereceiving sidelink device to the transmitting sidelink device.

These physical channels described above are generally multiplexed andmapped to transport channels for handling at the medium access control(MAC) layer. Transport channels carry blocks of information calledtransport blocks (TB). The transport block size (TBS), which maycorrespond to a number of bits of information, may be a controlledparameter, based on the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and thenumber of RBs in a given transmission.

The channels or carriers described above and illustrated in FIGS. 1-3are not necessarily all the channels or carriers that may be utilizedbetween a scheduling entity 108 and scheduled entities (e.g., one ofmore UE 106), and those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize thatother channels or carriers may be utilized in addition to thoseillustrated, such as other traffic, control, and feedback channels.

In 5G NR, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) may be repeated ona plurality of time domain resource allocation (TDRA) candidateoccasions (e.g., on two or more TDRA candidate occasions) with differenttransmission configuration indicator (TCI) states. Each PDSCH repetitionmay carry the same transport block (TB). Here, a TCI state indicatesquasi co-location (QCL) information for the PDSCH repetition. An exampleof a QCL type is QCL-TypeD, which indicates a spatial Rx parameter(e.g., spatial property of a beam on which the PDSCH repetition istransmitted). The spatial property of the beam may be inferred from anassociated reference signal (e.g., synchronization signal block (SSB),channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS), etc.) and mayindicate, for example, at least one of a beam direction or a beam width.Each TCI state specifies an antenna downlink beam. Accordingly, if thereare two TCI states configured for a PDSCH transmission to a UE, theremay be two antenna downlink beams (e.g., two downlink beams emanatingfrom a network access node such as a gNB toward a wireless communicationdevice). Accordingly, two mini-slots may provide a wirelesscommunication device with two PDSCH repetitions, one PDSCH repetitionfor each antenna downlink beam.

Prior to conveying data in a plurality of PDSCH repetitions, forexample, a gNB may convey TDRA information to the wireless communicationdevice. The TDRA information may be conveyed in downlink controlinformation (DCI) within a PDCCH. The TDRA information defines, amongother things, where a wireless communication device should expect tolocate, in a slot, valid TDRA candidate occasions in the time domain. Insome examples, only a first TDRA for a PDSCH first repetition isindicated to a wireless communication device by a gNB. The wirelesscommunication device may reuse the first TDRA for a PDSCH secondrepetition by shifting the first TDRA by a fixed time gap.

As indicated above, PDSCHs are transmitted in a downlink from thenetwork access node (e.g., base station, such as the gNB) to thewireless communication device in the downlink direction. As aconsequence, the symbol positions in the portions of a slot carrying thePDSCH repetitions are generally configured for transmissions in thedownlink direction. Nevertheless, because the same symbol positions usedfor PDSCH repetitions are used for other channels at other times, one orall of the symbols may have been, or will be, configured to handletraffic in the uplink direction. Additionally, the symbols for PDSCHdata may have been allocated using semi-persistent-scheduling (SPS).With SPS, a given set of symbols may be allocated for periodic downlinkdata without needing to schedule each individual downlink transmission.After scheduling the periodic downlink data transmissions using SPS,some form of dynamic scheduling from an upper layer may override thepreviously established SPS. As a consequence, it is possible that asymbol, for example, of a mini-slot used for a PDSCH repetition, may beutilized to carry uplink data or uplink control. Consequently, ifcoordination is somehow lacking, it is possible for there to be acollision between data flowing in the downlink direction and dataflowing in the uplink direction on the same symbol in a given slot.

In some examples, if any of a plurality of PDSCH repetitions collideswith at least one symbol configured by a higher layer as an uplinksymbol, the wireless communication device will skip decoding of all ofthe plurality of PDSCH repetitions and send a “fake” NACK to the networkaccess node to memorialize the skipped decoding of all of the PDSCHrepetitions. The NACK is referred to as “fake” because the NACK is notbased on a decoding of the symbols per se; that is, the NACK is notbased on actual decoding. Instead, the NACK is based on recognition of anon-decoding, or skipped decoding, event. The PDSCH repetitions that arenot decoded are referred to as being “dropped.”

The result of the dropped PDSCH repetition is a consequence of a rulein, for example, a semi-static acknowledgment/negative-acknowledgment(ACK/NACK) codebook, such as the type-1 codebook. The codebook indicatesthat the position of the ACK/NACK bit(s) for PDSCH repetitions aredecided by the signaled TDRA for the PDSCH first repetition. If thePDSCH first repetition is dropped, due, for example, to a collision, thecorresponding TDRA candidate occasions (for the remaining one or moreadditional PDSCH repetitions) will not be considered in the codebookconstruction and, hence, no position for corresponding ACK/NACK bit(s)is established for those remaining additional PDSCH repetitions.However, dropping a plurality of PDSCH repetitions, including bothcollided repetitions and the non-collided repetitions is inefficient.

In various aspects of the disclosure, in general, for mini-slot basedrepetition, a wireless communication device may receive downlink channelrepetitions (e.g., PDSCH repetitions) and, if any of the downlinkchannel repetitions collides with an uplink symbol, or is otherwise notable to be decoded, none of the downlink channel repetitions will bedropped. The rules set out herein are exemplified for certain codebooktypes, for example codebook types 1 or 2, but the rules are not limitedto these codebook types.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardwareimplementation of a wireless communication device 400 (e.g., a UE, ascheduled entity) employing a processing system 414 according to someaspects. In accordance with various aspects of the disclosure, anelement, or any portion of an element, or any combination of elementsmay be implemented with a processing system 414 that includes one ormore processors, such as processor 404. For example, the wirelesscommunication device 400 may correspond to any of the UEs, sidelinkdevices (e.g., D2D devices or V2X devices) and/or other suitablewireless communication devices shown in FIGS. 1 and/or 2 .

The wireless communication device 400 may be implemented with aprocessing system 414 that includes one or more processors, such asprocessor 404. Examples of processors (e.g., processor 404) includemicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs),field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices(PLDs), state machines, gated logic, discrete hardware circuits, andother suitable hardware configured to perform the various functionalitydescribed throughout this disclosure. The processor 404 may in someinstances be implemented via a baseband or modem chip and in otherimplementations, the processor 404 may itself comprise a number ofdevices distinct and different from a baseband or modem chip (e.g., insuch scenarios the number of device may work in concert to achieveexamples discussed herein). And as mentioned above, various hardwarearrangements and components outside of a baseband modem processor can beused in implementations, including RF-chains, power amplifiers,modulators, buffers, interleavers, adders/summers, etc. In variousexamples, the wireless communication device 400 may be configured toperform any one or more of the functions described herein. That is, theprocessor 404, as utilized in a scheduled entity, such as the wirelesscommunication device 400, may be used to implement any one or more ofthe processes described below and illustrated, for example, in FIGS. 6-8.

In this example, the processing system 414 may be implemented with a busarchitecture, represented generally by the bus 402. The bus 402 mayinclude any number of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on thespecific application of the processing system 414 and the overall designconstraints. The bus 402 communicatively couples together variouscircuits including one or more processors (represented generally by theprocessor 404), a memory 405, and computer-readable media (representedgenerally by the computer-readable medium 406). The computer-readablemedium 406 may be referred to as a computer-readable storage medium, anon-transitory computer-readable medium, or a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium may store computer-executable code. The computer executable codemay include code for causing a computer to implement one or more of thefunctions described herein. In other words, a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium may store instructions that when executed by aprocessing circuit cause the processing circuit to implement one or moreof the functions described herein. The bus 402 may also link variousother circuits such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators,and power management circuits, which are well known in the art, andtherefore, will not be described any further. A bus interface 408provides an interface between the bus 402 and a transceiver 410. Thetransceiver 410 may be a wireless transceiver. The transceiver 410provides a communication interface or means for communicating withvarious other apparatus over a transmission medium. An antenna orantenna array (not shown) may be coupled to the transceiver 410 totransmit energy into and receive energy from the transmission medium.Depending upon the nature of the apparatus, a user interface 412 (e.g.,keypad, display, speaker, microphone, joystick) may also be provided. Ofcourse, such a user interface 412 is optional, and may be omitted insome examples.

The processor 404 may be responsible for managing the bus 402 andgeneral processing, including the execution of software stored on thecomputer-readable medium 406. The software, when executed by theprocessor 404, causes the processing system 414 to perform the variousfunctions described below for any particular apparatus. Thecomputer-readable medium 406 and the memory 405 may also be used forstoring data that is manipulated by the processor 404 when executingsoftware.

One or more processors, such as processor 404, in the processing system414 may execute software. Software shall be construed broadly to meaninstructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code,programs, subprograms, software modules, applications, softwareapplications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects,executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whetherreferred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardwaredescription language, or otherwise. The software may reside on acomputer-readable medium 406. The computer-readable medium 406 may be anon-transitory computer-readable medium. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium includes, by way of example, a magnetic storagedevice (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strip), an optical disk(e.g., a compact disc (CD) or a digital versatile disc (DVD)), a smartcard, a flash memory device (e.g., a card, a stick, or a key drive), arandom access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM(PROM), an erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable PROM(EEPROM), a register, a removable disk, and any other suitable mediumfor storing software and/or instructions that may be accessed and readby a computer. The computer-readable medium 406 may reside in theprocessing system 414, external to the processing system 414, ordistributed across multiple entities including the processing system414. The computer-readable medium 406 may be embodied in a computerprogram product. By way of example, a computer program product mayinclude a computer-readable medium in packaging materials. Those skilledin the art will recognize how best to implement the describedfunctionality presented throughout this disclosure depending on theparticular application and the overall design constraints imposed on theoverall system.

In some aspects of the disclosure, the processor 404 may includerepeated communication processing circuitry 440 configured for variousfunctions, including, for example, identifying at least one of aplurality of repeated communications that is cancelled, receivingremaining repeated communications of the plurality of repeatedcommunications that are not cancelled, and generating acknowledgmentfeedback information for the remaining repeated communications. In someexamples, the repeated communications may include repeated PDSCHs, eachincluding the same information. For example, the repeated communicationprocessing circuitry 440 may be configured to implement one or more ofthe functions described below in relation to FIG. 6 , including, e.g.,blocks 602, 604, and 606. The repeated communication processingcircuitry 440 may further be configured to execute repeatedcommunication processing software 460 stored on the computer-readablemedium 406 to implement one or more functions described herein includingone or more of the functions described below in relation to FIG. 6 ,including, e.g., blocks 602, 604, and 606.

In some aspects of the disclosure, the processor 404 may include timedomain resource allocation (TDRA) candidate occasion identificationcircuitry 442 configured for various functions, including, for example,identifying a plurality of TDRA candidate occasions, each TDRA candidateoccasion occurring within a different respective one of a plurality ofmini-slots of a slot. In addition, each of the plurality of mini-slotscarries a different respective one of a plurality of downlink channelrepetitions. For example, the TDRA candidate occasion identificationcircuitry 442 may be configured to implement one or more of thefunctions described below in relation to FIG. 7 , including, e.g., block702. The TDRA candidate occasion identification circuitry 442 mayfurther be configured to execute TDRA candidate evaluation software 462stored on the computer-readable medium 406 to implement one or morefunctions described herein including one or more of the functionsdescribed below in relation to FIG. 7 , including, e.g., block 702.

In some aspects of the disclosure, the processor 404 may include timedomain resource allocation (TDRA) table circuitry 444, configured forvarious functions, including, for example, maintaining, in a TDRA table,TDRA entries including starting symbols and lengths of TDRA candidateoccasions used to determine ACK/NACK bit positions for feedback providedby the wireless communication device to, for example, a gNB. Thefeedback may be in the form of an ACK/NACK codebook (e.g., a Type-1codebook), where the position of an ACK/NACK bit in the codebook may bedetermined based on the location of a TDRA candidate occasion associatedwith a downlink channel repetition. The location of the TDRA candidateoccasion may be maintained as a TDRA entry in the TDRA table. Forexample, TDRA table circuitry 444 may be configured to implement one ormore of the functions described below in relation to FIG. 7 , including,e.g., block 704. The TDRA table circuitry 444 may further be configuredto execute TDRA table software 464 stored on the computer-readablemedium 406 to implement one or more functions described herein includingone or more of the functions described below in relation to FIG. 7 ,including, e.g., block 704.

For mini-slot based repetition, the repeated communication processingcircuitry 440, together with the TDRA candidate occasion identificationcircuitry 442 and TDRA table circuitry 444 may receive non-collideddownlink channel repetitions and refrain from dropping those downlinkchannel repetitions even if other downlink channel repetitions collidewith an uplink symbol. Toward this end, three examples may beconsidered.

According to a first example, a single ACK/NACK bit for a plurality ofTDRA candidate occasions may be used. If any of the plurality of TDRAcandidate occasions is able to be decoded, the single ACK/NACK bit maybe used to return an ACK (e.g., return an ACK in an PUCCH report sent toa gNB) for all of the TDRA candidate occasions. According to thisexample, the wireless communication device may keep the TDRA for thefirst downlink channel repetition in a candidate TDRA set and maydetermine the position of the ACK/NACK bit in feedback, provided by thewireless communication device, based on the first downlink channelrepetition location.

According to a second example, an ACK/NACK bit position (e.g., infeedback, provided by the wireless communication) associated with eachdownlink channel retransmission, may be determined for each of thedownlink channel retransmissions (e.g., where each retransmission isfound in a respective TDRA candidate occasion) based on TDRA entries ina TDRA table maintained by the wireless communication device. For a TDRAtable having a first TDRA entry corresponding to a single PDSCH firstrepetition, a wireless communication device may extend the TDRA table byadding a new TDRA entry that corresponds to a PDSCH second repetition(and a third, etc.) after recognizing that the first TDRA entry isassociated with the PDSCH first repetition. According to this example,each TDRA entry in the extended TDRA table may be used to determine anACK/NACK bit position in feedback provided by the wireless communicationdevice, related to the PDSCH repetition corresponding to the TDRA entry.

According to this example, the wireless communication device may reporta NACK for each repetition of the downlink channel that is not decoded.Additionally, or alternatively, the wireless communication device mayreport a first ACK/NACK for each repetition of the downlink channelbased on whether the repetition of the downlink channel is decoded ornot decoded, respectively. Additionally, or alternatively, the wirelesscommunication device may report a second ACK/NACK for the first downlinkchannel repetition and a NACK for a second downlink channel repetitionwithout regard to whether the second downlink channel repetition wasdecoded. Additionally, or alternatively, the wireless communicationdevice may report a third ACK/NACK for the first downlink channelrepetition and an ACK for the second downlink channel repetition withoutregard to whether the second downlink channel repetition was decoded.Additionally, or alternatively, the wireless communication device mayreport a plurality of ACK/NACKs at ACK/NACK bit positions determined bynon-collided TDRA candidate occasions and NACKs at ACK/NACK bitpositions determined by collided TDRA candidate occasions.

According to a third example, a composite TDRA entry may be added to anexisting TDRA table. According to this example, the existing (e.g., anoriginal) TDRA table may be extended such that a first part of theextended TDRA table includes a TDRA entry associated with a firstdownlink channel repetition and a second part of the extended TDRA tableincludes a composite TDRA entry determined based on a combination of aplurality of downlink channel repetitions including at least the firstdownlink channel repetition and a second downlink channel repetition.According to this third example, the wireless communication device mayfurther determine an ACK/NACK bit position to associate with thecomposite TDRA entry based on a starting symbol (S) of the compositeTDRA entry and an entry length (L) of the composite TDRA entry.According to one example, the composite TDRA entry length (L) may bedetermined by summing each respective length of each TDRA entry mappedinto the composite TDRA entry plus a sum of each respective gap betweeneach consecutive pair of TDRA entries mapped into the composite TDRAentry.

Again, for a given mini-slot repetition sequence in a slot, if not allof the repetitions collide with uplink symbols, the non-collidedrepetitions will not be dropped. A wireless communication device maysend an ACK/NACK bit(s) at position(s) determined by the compositeentry. The wireless communication device may keep the composite TDRAentry in the candidate TDRA set and determine ACK/NACK bit positions ifat least one TDRA candidate occasion of the plurality of TDRA candidateoccasions has no conflict. Also, the wireless communication device mayremove the composite TDRA if all TDRAs of all repetitions include atleast one UL symbol. That is, if all repetitions have collisions.

FIG. 5 depicts a slot 500 of a subframe 502 configured for single-DCIbased multi-transmission and reception point (M-TRP) ultra-reliablelow-latency communication (URLLC) scheme 3 and 4 according to someaspects. In the example shown, there are fourteen symbols in the slot500. According to this configuration, a maximum number of TCI states is2. The PDSCH first repetition 504 and the PDSCH second repetition 506correspond to the two TCI states. Resources are allocated in the timedomain that support the same number of consecutive symbols beingscheduled for each repetition as shown. In scheme 3, all repetitions arein a single slot (e.g., the slot 500), as presently implemented by anetwork, the PDSCH first repetition 504 and the PDSCH second repetition506 will be dropped if either one of the repetitions is not able to bedecoded (and dropped).

First mini-slot 508 and second mini-slot 510, each comprised of twoconsecutive symbols, are shown at symbols 5 and 6 and symbols 8 and 9.The first mini-slot 508 carries the PDSCH first repetition 504 and thesecond mini-slot 510 carries the PDSCH second repetition 506. A DCI 512is depicted in the slot 500 for exemplary purposes. The DCI 512 ispresented to indicate that the DCI 512 may precede the PDSCH firstrepetition 504 (and the PDSCH second repetition 506) in the slot 500 asshown or may occur in a preceding (earlier) slot (not shown). Asdescribed above, the DCI 512 may be used to convey the first valid TDRAcandidate occasion for the PDSCH first repetition 504. That is, thefirst valid TDRA candidate occasion may be at symbols 5 and 6 in theslot 500 (corresponding to the first mini-slot 508). The TDRA informs awireless communication device (e.g., wireless communication device 400of FIG. 4 ) of the position (e.g., the TDRA candidate occasion) of thePDSCH first repetition 504 in the slot 500. The wireless communicationdevice may determine the second TDRA candidate occasion by shifting theTDRA of the PDSCH first repetition 504 by a fixed time gap. In theexample of FIG. 5 , the fixed time gap may be that amount of timebetween the beginning of the fifth symbol and the beginning of theeighth symbol.

A collision situation is illustrated in FIG. 5 , where, although thePDSCH first repetition 504 and the PDSCH second repetition 506 areconfigured to communicate data in the downlink direction, uplink data oruplink control information are nevertheless found at symbol 6 of slot500. The PDSCH first repetition 504 is therefore dropped due to acollision between uplink data or uplink control information flowing fromanother wireless communication device in the uplink direction at thesymbol 6 and downlink data flowing to the wireless communication deviceat the same symbol 6. In order to avoid dropping both the PDSCH firstrepetition 504 and the PDSCH second repetition 506, non-dropping rulesmay be implemented for mini-slot based repetition to improve efficiency.

By way of example, the different symbol directions for symbol 6 in slot500 may be the result of a previously transmitted DCI including a slotformat indicator (SFI) indicating that symbols 5, 6, 8, and 9 aredownlink symbols (e.g., D, D, D, and D, respectively). In some examples,the SFI contained in the previously transmitted DCI may be establishedby a higher layer as a semi-persistently scheduled (SPS) pattern. Theconfiguration of symbol 6 in the slot 500 for data transmission in theuplink (U) direction may then occur when the gNB transmits an additionalDCI (e.g., a DCI format 2-0) including a SFI that indicates, forexample, a symbol direction that overrides the previously establishedpattern given by the SPS scheduling. Consequently, the old pattern of D,D, D, D may be overwritten by the new pattern of D, U, D, D (as depictedin FIG. 5 ). As a consequence, a collision will occur at symbol 6, whichis now configured for data traveling in an uplink (U) direction, despitebeing used to carry PDSCH data in a downlink direction.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process 600 (e.g., amethod) for a wireless communication device to implement a non-droppingrule for mini-slot based repetition according to some aspects. Asdescribed below, some or all illustrated features may be omitted in aparticular implementation within the scope of the present disclosure,and some illustrated features may not be required for implementation ofall examples. In some examples, the process 600 (e.g., a method) may becarried out by the wireless communication device 400 illustrated in FIG.4 . In some examples, the process 600 may be carried out by any suitableapparatus or means for carrying out the functions or algorithm describedbelow.

At block 602, the wireless communication device may identify at leastone of a plurality of repeated communications that is cancelled. Theplurality of repeated communications may be exemplified by the PDSCHfirst repetition 504 and the PDSCH second repetition 506 in FIG. 5 . ThePDSCH first repetition 504 is carried in the first mini-slot 508 and thePDSCH second repetition 506 is carried in the second mini-slot 510 ofthe slot 500 of FIG. 5 . In the exemplary illustration, the firstmini-slot 508 and the second mini-slot 510 are each comprised of twoconsecutive symbols. In some aspects, the wireless communication devicemay identify the at least one of the plurality of repeatedcommunications by determining whether the at least one of the pluralityof repeated communications is cancelled because of an overlap with atime resource indicated for another transmission. According to anotheraspect, the wireless communication device may identify the at least oneof the plurality of repeated communications by determining whether theat least one of the plurality of repeated communications is cancelled bya preemption indicator or a cancellation indicator due to higherpriority communication.

At block 604, the wireless communication device may receive remainingrepeated communications of the plurality of repeated communications thatare not cancelled. Referring to FIG. 5 for use as a non-limitingillustrative example of an application of the process 600, the pluralityof repeated communications may be exemplified by the PDSCH firstrepetition 504 and the PDSCH second repetition 506. The at least one ofthe plurality of repeated receptions that may be cancelled may be thePDSCH first repetition 504. The PDSCH first repetition 504 may becancelled for a predefined reason. For example, the PDSCH firstrepetition 504 may be overlapped with a time resource indicated foranother transmission. In FIG. 5 , the PDSCH first repetition 504(received on symbols 5 and 6) overlaps with a time resource indicatedfor another transmission (e.g., symbol 6 is indicated for uplinktransmission). The received remaining repeated communications that arenot cancelled may be exemplified by the PDSCH second repetition 506.

At block 606, the wireless communication device may generateacknowledgment feedback information for the remaining repeatedcommunications. The feedback information may be based on a receptionresult associated with each of the remaining repetitions. In one examplethe reception result may be a decoding result represented by an ACK(e.g., an actual ACK based on a successful decoding operation of thePDSCH second repetition 506) or a NACK (e.g., an actual NACK based on anunsuccessful decoding operation of the PDSCH second repetition 506).

According to aspects herein, the at least one of the plurality ofrepeated communication that is canceled may be identified based on atest that determines if the repeated communication satisfies apredefined rule. For example, a repeated communication may be canceledif the repeated communication overlaps with a time resource indicatedfor another transmission. In one example, the time resource for anothertransmission may be indicated by a slot format indicator (SFI). Inanother example, the time resource for another transmission may beindicated by a dynamic grant for scheduling transmission. Accordingly,returning to the illustration of FIG. 5 , the time resource for anothertransmission (symbol 6 of the slot 500) may have been indicated by anSFI or a dynamic grant for scheduling transmission.

There may be other predefined rules for cancellation, in addition to,for example, the overlapping of a repeated communication with a timeresource indicated for another transmission. For example, anotherpredefined rule for cancellation may consider whether a given repeatedcommunication is cancelled by a preemption indicator (PI) or acancellation indicator (CI) due to higher priority communication. In 5G,for example, at least three generic services may be supported: enhancedmobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine-type communications (mMTC), andultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC) (also referred toas mission-critical communications). By way of example, a gNB may send aPI to the wireless communication device to preempt reception of thePDSCH first repetition 504 because the gNB has an immediate need to usethe resources previously scheduled for the PDSCH first repetition 504for a mission-critical communication from or to another device.

According to certain aspects, the multiple repetition receptionsreceived by the wireless communication device may be at least one of:dynamically scheduled by a first downlink control information (DCI), orrepeated periodically after semi-persistent activation by a second DCI(e.g., use of semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) for resource scheduling).Accordingly, the wireless communication device may schedule theplurality of repeated communications dynamically according to the firstreceived downlink control information (DCI), or schedule the pluralityof repeated communications according to a periodic repetition aftersemi-persistent activation by the second DCI.

In some examples, the wireless communication device may sendacknowledgment feedback information in a predefined type of hybridautomatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ ACK) information codebook.For example, the predefined type of HARQ ACK information codebook may bea type-1 codebook. Other types of codebooks are within the scope of thedisclosure.

In one configuration, the wireless communication device 400 for wirelesscommunication includes means for identifying at least one of a pluralityof repeated communications that is cancelled, means for receivingremaining repeated communications of the plurality of repeatedcommunications that are not cancelled, and means for generatingacknowledgment feedback information for the remaining repeatedcommunications. In one aspect, the aforementioned means may be theprocessor 404 shown in FIG. 4 and configured to perform the functionsrecited by the aforementioned means. In another aspect, theaforementioned means may be a circuit, or any apparatus configured toperform the functions recited by the aforementioned means.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process 700 (e.g., amethod) for a wireless communication device to implement a non-droppingrule for mini-slot based repetition according to some aspects. Asdescribed below, some or all illustrated features may be omitted in aparticular implementation within the scope of the present disclosure,and some illustrated features may not be required for implementation ofall examples. In some examples, the process 700 (e.g., a method) may becarried out by the wireless communication device 400 illustrated in FIG.4 . In some examples, the process 700 may be carried out by any suitableapparatus or means for carrying out the functions or algorithm describedbelow.

At block 702, the wireless communication device may identify a pluralityof time domain resource allocation (TDRA) candidate occasions, each TDRAcandidate occasion may occur within a different respective one of aplurality of mini-slots, each of the plurality of mini-slots carrying adifferent respective one of a plurality of downlink channel repetitions.At block 704, the wireless communication device may maintain, in a TDRAtable, TDRA entries including location information of the plurality ofTDRA candidate occasions associated with the plurality of downlinkchannel repetitions, when at least one of the plurality of downlinkchannel repetitions is not decoded.

FIG. 7 provides an illustration of a broad implementation of a ruleaccording to some aspects. FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating anadditional aspect of a process 800 (e.g., a method) related to theexemplary process 700 of FIG. 7 , for a wireless communication device toimplement a non-dropping rule for mini-slot based repetition accordingto some aspects. According to one aspect, at block 802, the wirelesscommunication device may determine if at least one of the plurality ofdownlink channel repetitions is not decoded. At block 804, the wirelesscommunication device may refrain from dropping any of the plurality ofdownlink channel repetitions when the at least one of the plurality ofdownlink channel repetitions is not decoded. According to one example,such as that illustrated in FIG. 5 , the plurality of TDRA candidateoccasions may be occur in one slot (e.g., the slot 500 of FIG. 5 ). Themethods depicted in FIG. 6 , FIG. 7 , and FIG. 8 are exemplified fordownlink channels in general. One example of a downlink channel may be aphysical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

According to some aspects, the process 700 of FIG. 7 may further includedetermining an acknowledgment/negative-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) bitposition to associate with feedback related to a given downlink channelrepetition based on the location information in the TDRA table. Also, itis reiterated that the process 700 may further include refraining fromdropping any of the plurality of TDRA opportunities if at least onerepetition of the downlink channel is decoded (e.g., is not collided)even if at least one other repetition of the downlink channel is notdecoded (e.g., is collided).

According to one aspect, the process 700 may further include determiningthat the at least one repetition of the downlink channel cannot bedecoded based on at least one of a detection of a collision betweenuplink and downlink data or control in a downlink channel, acancellation of a downlink channel repetition included in a slot formatindicator (SFI), or a preemption indicator (PI) that preempts decodingof the downlink channel.

According to some aspects, the process 700 may further include expandingthe TDRA table maintained at the wireless communication device by oneadditional TDRA table entry for each additional TDRA candidate occasionidentified by the wireless communication device.

The concepts described herein may be extended for other situations. Forexample, if a subset of repetitions in mini-slot based PDSCH repetitionsis cancelled by, for example a slot formation indicator (SFI) orpre-empted based on a pre-emption indication (PI), the remainingnon-cancelled, non-pre-empted repetitions should not be dropped. In viewof this concept extension, if a subset of repetitions is cancelled bySFI or PI, the wireless communication device may still receive theremaining non-cancelled, non-pre-empted repetitions in the sequence. Inthis case, the wireless communication device may send ACK/NACK bit(s)based on decoding results with the remaining repetitions. By way ofexample, for a type-1 codebook, the position of the ACK/NACK bit(s) maybe determined based on any of the previously described examples.

According to another example, if a subset of repetitions is cancelled bySFI/PI, the wireless communication device may not receive the wholemini-slot based repetition sequence, in which case the wirelesscommunication device may either send NACK bit(s) for the PDSCHrepetition containing the cancelled PDSCH, or not send ACK/NACK bit(s)for the PDSCH repetition containing the cancelled PDSCH. Each examplemay be applied to all or a subset of all ACK/NACK codebook types (e.g.,codebook type-1).

In one configuration, the wireless communication device 400 for wirelesscommunication includes means for identifying a plurality of time domainresource allocation (TDRA) candidate occasions, each TDRA candidateoccasion occurring within a different respective one of a plurality ofmini-slots, each of the plurality of mini-slots carrying a differentrespective one of a plurality of downlink channel repetitions and meansfor maintaining, in a TDRA table, TDRA entries including locationinformation of the plurality of TDRA candidate occasions associated withthe plurality of downlink channel repetitions, when at least one of theplurality of downlink channel repetitions is not decoded. In one aspect,the aforementioned means may be the processor 404 shown in FIG. 4 andconfigured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means.In another aspect, the aforementioned means may be a circuit, or anyapparatus configured to perform the functions recited by theaforementioned means.

Of course, in the above examples, the circuitry included in theprocessor 404 is merely provided as an example, and other means forcarrying out the described functions may be included within variousaspects of the present disclosure, including but not limited to theinstructions stored in the computer-readable medium 406, or any othersuitable apparatus or means described in any one of the FIGS. 1 and 2 ,and utilizing, for example, the processes and/or algorithms describedherein in relation to FIGS. 6, 7 , and/or 8.

The following provides an overview of aspects of the present disclosure:

Aspect 1: A method of wireless communication, the method comprising, ata wireless communication device: identifying at least one of a pluralityof repeated communications that is cancelled; receiving remainingrepeated communications of the plurality of repeated communications thatare not cancelled; and generating acknowledgment feedback informationfor the remaining repeated communications.

Aspect 2: The method of aspect 1, further comprising: identifying the atleast one of the plurality of repeated communications by determiningwhether the at least one of the plurality of repeated communications iscancelled because of an overlap with a time resource indicated foranother transmission.

Aspect 3: The method of aspect 1 or 2, wherein the time resource for theother transmission is indicated by a slot format indicator.

Aspect 4: The method of aspect 1 or 2, wherein the time resource for theother transmission is indicated by a dynamic grant for schedulingtransmission.

Aspect 5: The method of any of aspects 1 through 4, further comprising:identifying the at least one of the plurality of repeated communicationsby determining whether the at least one of the plurality of repeatedcommunications is cancelled by a preemption indicator or a cancellationindicator due to higher priority communication.

Aspect 6: The method of any of aspects 1 through 5, further comprising:scheduling the plurality of repeated communications dynamicallyaccording to a first received downlink control information (DCI), orscheduling the plurality of repeated communications according to aperiodic repetition after semi-persistent activation by a second DCI.

Aspect 7: The method of any of aspects 1 through 6, further comprising:sending the acknowledgment feedback information in a predefined type ofhybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ ACK) informationcodebook.

Aspect 8: The method of any of aspects 1 through 7, wherein thepredefined type of HARQ ACK information codebook is a type-1 codebook.

Aspect 9: A wireless communication device in a wireless communicationnetwork, comprising: a wireless transceiver, a memory, and a processorcommunicatively coupled to the wireless transceiver and the memory,wherein the processor and the memory are configured to perform a methodof any one of aspects 1 through 8.

Aspect 10: A method of wireless communication, the method comprising, ata wireless communication device: identifying a plurality of time domainresource allocation (TDRA) candidate occasions, each TDRA candidateoccasion occurring within a different respective one of a plurality ofmini-slots, each of the plurality of mini-slots carrying a differentrespective one of a plurality of downlink channel repetitions; andmaintaining, in a TDRA table, TDRA entries including locationinformation of the plurality of TDRA candidate occasions associated withthe plurality of downlink channel repetitions, when at least one of theplurality of downlink channel repetitions is not decoded.

Aspect 11: The method of aspect 10, further comprising: determining ifat least one of the plurality of downlink channel repetitions is notdecoded; and refraining from dropping any of the plurality of downlinkchannel repetitions when the at least one of the plurality of downlinkchannel repetitions is not decoded.

Aspect 12: The method aspect 10 or 11, further comprising: determiningthat at least one of the plurality of downlink channel repetitions isnot decoded based on at least one of: a detection of a collision betweenuplink and downlink data or control in a downlink channel, acancellation of a downlink channel repetition included in a slot formatindicator, or a preemption indicator that preempts decoding of thedownlink channel.

Aspect 13: The method of any of aspects 10 through 12, wherein theplurality of TDRA candidate occasions occur in one slot.

Aspect 14: The method of any of aspects 10 through 13, wherein adownlink channel is a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

Aspect 15: The method of any of aspects 10 through 14, furthercomprising: determining an ACK/NACK bit position to associate withfeedback related to a given downlink channel repetition based on thelocation information in the TDRA table.

Aspect 16: The method of any of aspects 10 through 15, furthercomprising: refraining from dropping any of the plurality of downlinkchannel repetitions if at least one of the plurality of downlink channelrepetitions is decoded.

Aspect 17: The method of any of aspects 10 through 16, furthercomprising: expanding the TDRA table maintained at the wirelesscommunication device by one additional TDRA table entry for eachadditional TDRA candidate occasion identified by the wirelesscommunication device.

Aspect 18: The method of any of aspects 10 through 17, furthercomprising: at least one of: reporting a NACK for each repetition of thedownlink channel that is not decoded; reporting a first ACK/NACK foreach repetition of the downlink channel based on whether the repetitionof the downlink channel is decoded or not decoded, respectively;reporting a second ACK/NACK for the first downlink channel and a NACKfor a second downlink channel without regard to whether the seconddownlink channel was decoded; reporting a third ACK/NACK for the firstdownlink channel and an ACK for the second downlink channel withoutregard to whether the second downlink channel was decoded; or reportinga plurality of ACK/NACKs at ACK/NACK bit positions determined bynon-collided TDRA candidate occasions and NACKs at ACK/NACK bitpositions determined by collided TDRA candidate occasions.

Aspect 19: The method of any of aspects 10 through 18, furthercomprising: extending the TDRA table such that a first part of theextended TDRA table comprises a TDRA entry associated with a firstdownlink channel repetition and a second part of the extended TDRA tablecomprises a composite TDRA entry determined based on a combination of aplurality of downlink channel repetitions including at least the firstdownlink channel repetition and a second downlink channel repetition.

Aspect 20: The method any of aspects 10 through 19, further comprising:determining an acknowledgment/negative-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) bitposition to associate with the composite TDRA entry based on a startingsymbol of the composite TDRA entry and an entry length of the compositeTDRA entry.

Aspect 21: The method of any of aspects 10 through 20, furthercomprising: determining the entry length of the composite TDRA entry bysumming each respective length of each TDRA entry mapped into thecomposite TDRA entry plus a sum of each respective gap between eachconsecutive pair of TDRA entries mapped into the composite TDRA entry.

Aspect 22: A wireless communication device in a wireless communicationnetwork, comprising: a wireless transceiver, a memory, and a processorcommunicatively coupled to the wireless transceiver and the memory,wherein the processor and the memory are configured to perform a methodof any one of aspects 10 through 21.

Aspect 23: An apparatus configured for wireless communication comprisingat least one means for performing a method of any one of aspects 1through 8 or 10 through 21.

Aspect 24: A non-transitory computer-readable medium storingcomputer-executable code, comprising code for causing an apparatus toperform a method of any one of aspects 1 through 8 or 10 through 21.

Several aspects of a wireless communication network have been presentedwith reference to an exemplary implementation. As those skilled in theart will readily appreciate, various aspects described throughout thisdisclosure may be extended to other telecommunication systems, networkarchitectures and communication standards.

By way of example, various aspects may be implemented within othersystems defined by 3GPP, such as Long-Term Evolution (LTE), the EvolvedPacket System (EPS), the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System(UMTS), and/or the Global System for Mobile (GSM). Various aspects mayalso be extended to systems defined by the 3rd Generation PartnershipProject 2 (3GPP2), such as CDMA 2000 and/or Evolution-Data Optimized(EV-DO). Other examples may be implemented within systems employing IEEE802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Ultra-Wideband (UWB),Bluetooth, and/or other suitable systems. The actual telecommunicationstandard, network architecture, and/or communication standard employedwill depend on the specific application and the overall designconstraints imposed on the system.

Within the present disclosure, the word “exemplary” is used to mean“serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any implementationor aspect described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to beconstrued as preferred or advantageous over other aspects of thedisclosure. Likewise, the term “aspects” does not require that allaspects of the disclosure include the discussed feature, advantage, ormode of operation. The term “coupled” is used herein to refer to thedirect or indirect coupling between two objects. For example, if objectA physically touches object B, and object B touches object C, thenobjects A and C may still be considered coupled to one another—even ifthey do not directly physically touch each other. For instance, a firstobject may be coupled to a second object even though the first object isnever directly physically in contact with the second object. The terms“circuit” and “circuitry” are used broadly and intended to include bothhardware implementations of electrical devices and conductors that, whenconnected and configured, enable the performance of the functionsdescribed in the present disclosure, without limitation as to the typeof electronic circuits, as well as software implementations ofinformation and instructions that, when executed by a processor, enablethe performance of the functions described in the present disclosure.

One or more of the components, steps, features and/or functionsillustrated in FIGS. 1-8 may be rearranged and/or combined into a singlecomponent, step, feature, or function or embodied in several components,steps, or functions. Additional elements, components, steps, and/orfunctions may also be added without departing from novel featuresdisclosed herein. The apparatus, devices, and/or components illustratedin FIGS. 1, 2, and/or 4 may be configured to perform one or more of themethods, features, or steps described herein, including those associatedwith FIGS. 6, 7 , and/or 8. The novel algorithms described herein mayalso be efficiently implemented in software and/or embedded in hardware.

It is to be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps inthe methods disclosed is an illustration of exemplary processes. Basedupon design preferences, it is understood that the specific order orhierarchy of steps in the methods may be rearranged. The accompanyingmethod claims present elements of the various steps in a sample orderand are not meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchypresented unless specifically recited therein.

The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in theart to practice the various aspects described herein. Variousmodifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilledin the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied toother aspects. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to theaspects shown herein but are to be accorded the full scope consistentwith the language of the claims, wherein reference to an element in thesingular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specificallyso stated, but rather “one or more.” Unless specifically statedotherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more. A phrase referring to“at least one of” a list of items refers to any combination of thoseitems, including single members. As an example, “at least one of: a, b,or c” is intended to cover: a; b; c; a and b; a and c; b and c; and a, band c. All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of thevarious aspects described throughout this disclosure that are known orlater come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art areexpressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to beencompassed by the claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein isintended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether suchdisclosure is explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element is tobe construed under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) unless theelement is expressly recited using the phrase “means for” or, in thecase of a method claim, the element is recited using the phrase “stepfor.”

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of wireless communication, the methodcomprising, at a wireless communication device: identifying a pluralityof time domain resource allocation (TDRA) candidate occasions, each TDRAcandidate occasion occurring within a different respective one of aplurality of mini-slots, each of the plurality of mini-slots carrying adifferent respective one of a plurality of downlink channel repetitions;and maintaining, in a TDRA table, TDRA entries including locationinformation of the plurality of TDRA candidate occasions associated withthe plurality of downlink channel repetitions, when at least one of theplurality of downlink channel repetitions is not decoded.
 2. The methodof wireless communication of claim 1, further comprising: determining ifat least one of the plurality of downlink channel repetitions is notdecoded; and refraining from dropping any of the plurality of downlinkchannel repetitions when the at least one of the plurality of downlinkchannel repetitions is not decoded.
 3. The method of wirelesscommunication of claim 2, further comprising: determining that at leastone of the plurality of downlink channel repetitions is not decodedbased on at least one of: a detection of a collision between uplink anddownlink data or control in a downlink channel, a cancellation of adownlink channel repetition included in a slot format indicator, or apreemption indicator that preempts decoding of the downlink channel. 4.The method of wireless communication of claim 1, wherein the pluralityof TDRA candidate occasions occur in one slot.
 5. The method of wirelesscommunication of claim 1, wherein a downlink channel is a physicaldownlink shared channel (PDSCH).
 6. The method of wireless communicationof claim 1, further comprising: determining anacknowledgment/negative-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) bit position toassociate with feedback related to a given downlink channel repetitionbased on the location information in the TDRA table.
 7. The method ofwireless communication of claim 1, further comprising: refraining fromdropping any of the plurality of downlink channel repetitions if atleast one of the plurality of downlink channel repetitions is decoded.8. The method of wireless communication of claim 1, further comprising:expanding the TDRA table maintained at the wireless communication deviceby one additional TDRA table entry for each additional TDRA candidateoccasion identified by the wireless communication device.
 9. The methodof wireless communication of claim 1, further comprising at least oneof: reporting a negative-acknowledgment (NACK) for each repetition of adownlink channel that is not decoded; reporting a firstacknowledgment/negative-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) for each repetition ofthe downlink channel based on whether the repetition of the downlinkchannel is decoded or not decoded, respectively; reporting a secondACK/NACK for a first downlink channel and a NACK for a second downlinkchannel without regard to whether the second downlink channel wasdecoded; reporting a third ACK/NACK for the first downlink channel andan ACK for the second downlink channel without regard to whether thesecond downlink channel was decoded; or reporting a plurality ofACK/NACKs at ACK/NACK bit positions determined by non-collided TDRAcandidate occasions and NACKs at ACK/NACK bit positions determined bycollided TDRA candidate occasions.
 10. The method of wirelesscommunication of claim 1, further comprising: extending the TDRA tablesuch that a first part of the extended TDRA table comprises a TDRA entryassociated with a first downlink channel repetition and a second part ofthe extended TDRA table comprises a composite TDRA entry determinedbased on a combination of a plurality of downlink channel repetitionsincluding at least the first downlink channel repetition and a seconddownlink channel repetition.
 11. The method of wireless communication ofclaim 10, further comprising: determining anacknowledgment/negative-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) bit position toassociate with the composite TDRA entry based on a starting symbol ofthe composite TDRA entry and an entry length of the composite TDRAentry.
 12. The method of wireless communication of claim 11, furthercomprising: determining the entry length of the composite TDRA entry bysumming each respective length of each TDRA entry mapped into thecomposite TDRA entry plus a sum of each respective gap between eachconsecutive pair of TDRA entries mapped into the composite TDRA entry.13. A wireless communication device in a wireless communication network,comprising: a wireless transceiver; a memory; and a processorcommunicatively coupled to the wireless transceiver and the memory,wherein the processor and the memory are configured to: identify aplurality of time domain resource allocation (TDRA) candidate occasions,each TDRA candidate occasion occurring within a different respective oneof a plurality of mini-slots, each of the plurality of mini-slotscarrying a different respective one of a plurality of downlink channelrepetitions; and maintain, in a TDRA table, TDRA entries includinglocation information of the plurality of TDRA candidate occasionsassociated with the plurality of downlink channel repetitions, when atleast one of the plurality of downlink channel repetitions is notdecoded.
 14. The wireless communication device of claim 13, wherein theprocessor and the memory are further configured to: determine if atleast one of the plurality of downlink channel repetitions is notdecoded; and refrain from dropping any of the plurality of downlinkchannel repetitions when the at least one of the plurality of downlinkchannel repetitions is not decoded.
 15. The wireless communicationdevice of claim 13, wherein the processor and the memory are furtherconfigured to: determine an acknowledgment/negative-acknowledgment(ACK/NACK) bit position to associate with feedback related to a givendownlink channel repetition based on the location information in theTDRA table.
 16. The wireless communication device of claim 13, whereinthe processor and the memory are further configured to: determine anacknowledgment/negative-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) bit position toassociate with feedback related to a given downlink channel repetitionbased on the location information in the TDRA table.
 17. The wirelesscommunication device of claim 13, wherein the processor and the memoryare further configured to at least one of: report anegative-acknowledgment (NACK) for each repetition of a downlink channelthat is not decoded; report a firstacknowledgment/negative-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) for each repetition ofthe downlink channel based on whether the repetition of the downlinkchannel is decoded or not decoded, respectively; report a secondACK/NACK for a first downlink channel and a NACK for a second downlinkchannel without regard to whether the second downlink channel wasdecoded; report a third ACK/NACK for the first downlink channel and anACK for the second downlink channel without regard to whether the seconddownlink channel was decoded; or report a plurality of ACK/NACKs atACK/NACK bit positions determined by non-collided TDRA candidateoccasions and NACKs at ACK/NACK bit positions determined by collidedTDRA candidate occasions.
 18. A non-transitory computer-readable mediumstoring instructions that when executed by a processing circuit causethe processing circuit to: identify a plurality of time domain resourceallocation (TDRA) candidate occasions, each TDRA candidate occasionoccurring within a different respective one of a plurality ofmini-slots, each of the plurality of mini-slots carrying a differentrespective one of a plurality of downlink channel repetitions; andmaintain, in a TDRA table, TDRA entries including location informationof the plurality of TDRA candidate occasions associated with theplurality of downlink channel repetitions, when at least one of theplurality of downlink channel repetitions is not decoded.
 19. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein theinstructions further cause the processing circuit to: determine if atleast one of the plurality of downlink channel repetitions is notdecoded; and refrain from dropping any of the plurality of downlinkchannel repetitions when the at least one of the plurality of downlinkchannel repetitions is not decoded.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions furthercause the processing circuit to: determine anacknowledgment/negative-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) bit position toassociate with feedback related to a given downlink channel repetitionbased on the location information in the TDRA table.